Studies on thermal stability and UV-resistant performance of poly(MMA-co-M12-co-BPMA)/TiO2 composite particles

Abstract

In this paper, the thermal stability and UV-resistant performance of the poly(methyl methacrylate-co-sodium sulfopropyl lauryl maleate-co-2-hydroxy-4-(3- methacryloxy-2-hydroxylpropoxy) benzophenone) /TiO2 (i.e. poly(MMA-co-M12-co-BPMA)/TiO2) composite particles were studied by means of laser diffraction particle size analyzer (LDPSA), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopy (UV-vis), ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and weight loss measurements. The results indicate that the dispersion of composite particles is better than that of TiO 2 particles and the thermal stability of composite particles is better than that of poly(MMA-co-M12-co-BPMA). The poly(MMA-co-M12-co-BPMA)/ TiO2 composite particles could absorb more than 90% of UV light in the 210-400 nm wavelength, which was useful to enhance the UV-resistant performance of polymers (e.g. PMMA). The Tg of polymer grafted from the surface of TiO2 did not change after UV irradiation for 500 h but that of PMMA changed a lot, the weight loss of composite particles was much lower than that of PMMA after UV irradiation, showing that the UV-resistant performance of PMMA has been enhanced by introducing the organic UV-stabilizer BPMA and the inorganic UV-stabilizer titanium dioxide into the polymer chains by covalent bonding.